Weekend Explorations

The past two saturdays I was fortunate enough to take day trips and explore this country. Two weekends ago I went to Rishikesh, known for its ashrams and hippies. It was a beautiful city, with the river, suspension bridges, and unique architecture.

Me in front of the "wedding cake" shaped ashram

Street in Rishikesh

We had a fun time shopping, looking around, and observing hippies (I hadn't seen that many white people in one place since I left America!). We ate lunch at a restaurant supposedly known for its mexican food, but it just didn't compare to true tex-mex.

Cow in front of a temple

Shopping!

This past Saturday I was invited to a village by my friend's househelper. I was so excited to see village India!

My friend and her househelper, our lovely village tourguide :)

It was so fun- we got a tour of the village and had lunch cooked by our friend's son. To me it felt more like a really small town than what I had imagined a village looking like. It was very peaceful, and crossing the road was actually easy as there weren't many cars- so different than my city! The village reminded me of Brazil, with kids running around everywhere.

Some cute kids

 We took tour of the town and saw the "jungle" (some trees) and the river, where we crashed a family picnic. Then, we went to her parents' house, which was kind of a farm. They gave us some delicious chai, and were mesmerized by Levi, an American toddler who was also on the trip with us.

A stable, like where Jesus was born!

Washing vegetables

It was a great trip and I feel like I got to see a different perspective of India than I have seen before!